Oswalt celebrates at the Cardinals' expense

Oswalt pitched seven innings, allowing only four hits and
striking out nine, and Lance Berkman doubled and homered to lead
the Astros to a 7-0 victory.

Oswalt (14-6) is 6-0 in his last seven starts and hasn't lost
since falling to the Chicago Cubs July 14. He threw 99 pitches
and didn't walk anyone.

"My slow curve was working," Oswalt said. "Guys were taking
pitches off me, trying to get my pitch count up. I was able to
get ahead of a lot of hitters and throw some pitches outside the
strike zone (they swung at)."

Oswalt missed his last start with a strained oblique muscle.

"I was a little worried going into the game with the oblique,"
he said. "I tried to take it easy the first few innings. After
the fourth inning I let it go."

Rick Ankiel managed one of the four hits off Oswalt, a bloop
single in the first inning.

"He had good stuff tonight," Ankiel said of Oswalt. "It was just
electric. You just hope he makes a mistake."

Oswalt helped Houston interim manager Cecil Cooper, who replaced
the fired Phil Garner on Monday, collect his first win in the
majors. The Astros lost Cooper's debut, 7-0, Tuesday night.

Catcher Brad Ausmus presented Cooper with a game ball after the
victory.

"I will save it," Cooper said. "It's pretty special. My job was
pretty easy tonight. I had the best pitcher on the planet.
Anytime Roy takes the mound you've got a great chance to win.
His fastball had a lot of life. He was throwing 94 in the
seventh."

St. Louis, which moved into second place in the NL Central ahead
of Milwaukee on Tuesday, had its three-game winning streak
snapped. The Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs Wednesday night,
moving ahead of St. Louis again.

The Cardinals (64-65), who slipped a game under .500, remain
only two games behind first place Chicago (67-64).

Berkman hit his 25th homer to lead off the bottom of the third
inning and give the Astros a 4-0 lead against St. Louis starter
and Houston native Kip Wells (6-15). It was the 250th homer of
Berkman's career, the ninth switch hitter all-time to reach that
number.

"I'm sure he's glad to get it out of the way," Berkman said of
Cooper's first win. "Anytime you get Roy the lead early it's
going to be tough on the team."

Berkman, hitting better the last couple of weeks, raised his
average to .278 with a 3-for-5 game.

"I can't explain why I struggled early in the season," he said.
"I can't explain why I'm hitting better now. It's just the
nature of the sport."

"He's not chasing a lot of bad pitches," Cooper said. "When he
uses the whole field, he's a pretty special hitter."

Berkman doubled home Craig Biggio with the first run of the game
in the first inning. Luke Scott opened the bottom of the second
with a leadoff homer, his 15th. One out later Brad Ausmus
tripled to left center.

Oswalt made it 3-0 when he lined a single to right to score
Ausmus for his second RBI of the season. Biggio doubled to lead
off the last of the seventh, the 665th of his career, tying
George Brett for fifth all-time.

"Tying George Brett, I know him, I played against him, as a kid
I saw him hit a home run at Yankee Stadium, he has a certain
charisma about him," Biggio said.

Wells, who pitched at Baylor, gave up five runs on nine hits in
six-plus innings.

"My goal was to go out there and get ahead and get more of the
plate with pitches early on," Wells said. "For the most part, I
did that. I gave up two home runs to hitters where I was ahead
in the count. I just made mistakes with hittable pitches and
they cashed in on them."

"The first five or six guys that got hits, he was ahead in the
count," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "His put-away
pitch was a mistake and paid for it. Then, he got it together
and actually did a good job of saving us."